The way people discover products online is evolving rapidly. AI platforms like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot are becoming central to product recommendations and shopping journeys. It’s no longer just about Google Search and Shopping. This shift in shopper behaviour presents a major opportunity for online retailers who are prepared to move fast and adapt.
ChatGPT has recently announced a shopping experience that allows users to discover and explore products directly within the AI tool’s interface. Retailers can make their products more visible by integrating catalogues with ChatGPT, enabling ChatGPT to suggest relevant items and showcase product images and descriptions during conversations. This opens up a powerful new channel for product discovery and gives early adopters a clear advantage. The new features might even go beyond product discovery with code analysts finding code that indicates a tie-up with Shopify. This would mean that shoppers would be able to find products and then buy them without leaving ChatGPT. This would be huge news for the 800 million retailers who use Shopify.
Similarly, Microsoft is expanding its AI shopping capabilities through the Copilot Merchant Program. This initiative lets retailers integrate their product catalogues with Microsoft Copilot, allowing customers to find products via AI-powered recommendations across Microsoft’s apps and services. Benefits include for brands include increased brand visibility and real-time data syncing, and for shoppers; the ability to start a purchase directly within the Copilot environment.
To stay competitive and get your products in front of AI-savvy shoppers, it’s essential to act now. That means improving your product data, making the most of customer reviews, and integrating with these new AI platforms.
I’ve broken down the five essential steps for you:
1. Optimise Product Data for AI Discovery
AI tools rely on structured, high-quality data to connect shoppers with the right products. If your product information is incomplete or unclear, your listings may not appear in AI-generated results.
What to do:
- Use structured data markup, such as schema.org, to help AI systems accurately interpret your product details.
- Write clear, keyword-rich titles and descriptions that reflect how your customers search.
- Include high-quality images from different angles that show your product in use.
- Highlight key features and benefits that address common customer needs or problems.
- Display pricing clearly and consistently to build trust and support accurate AI comparisons.
2. Make the Most of Customer Reviews
Customer reviews and ratings don’t just build credibility, they also provide valuable context for AI systems. Positive, specific reviews can help your products get recommended more frequently.
Best practices:
- Prompt customers to leave reviews after purchase.
- Moderate for clarity and remove irrelevant or misleading comments.
- Showcase reviews that highlight use cases, benefits, and satisfaction.
3. Integrate with ChatGPT’s Shopping Features
OpenAI is rolling out features that allow retailers to integrate product catalogues directly into ChatGPT. This is surely a huge opportunity for forward-thinking brands.
How to get started:
- Allow web crawling by updating your
robots.txtto permit OpenAI’s OAI-SearchBot. - Submit your interest and online shop’s details via OpenAI’s interest form
4. Join Microsoft’s Copilot Merchant Program
Microsoft’s Copilot may not yet match ChatGPT’s reach, but will also have shopping feateues. The Copilot Merchant Program gives you and your shop a chance to be part of the AI-driven shopping future.
Why join:
- Appear in AI-generated recommendations across Microsoft platforms.
- Your product specifications and pricing will be current and accurate.
- Allow purchases directly through Copilot to streamline conversions.
Register your interest: Copilot Merchant Program Form
5. Track Performance and Keep Improving
If you regular look at your website stats you’ll probably have noticed traffic from ChatGPT and this will only increase, especially after the shopping features go live. Once these are integrated, monitor your performance closely. AI tools will rise and fall in popularity and the platforms will continue to evolve their shopping features, so your approach should too.
What to track:
- Click-through rates (CTR)
- Conversion rates
- Referral traffic (eg look for
utm_source=chatgpt.com) - Customer satisfaction and repeat purchase rates
Use this data to continuously refine your listings and improve your AI strategy.
Final Thoughts
AI-driven shopping isn’t a passing trend. It’s the future of ecommerce.
It won’t be long before Google jumps on the shopping bandwagon and just as it has introduced AI overviews to Search, AI shopping will no doubt soon be very much part of Google Shopping with the ability for shoppers to ask questions and have conversations.
By taking these five steps, you’ll be well-positioned to reach new customers, increase visibility, and stay ahead of the competition in an increasingly AI-first world.
Want specific advice on your online business? Order a Webdog AI Shopping Readiness Report for your website or book me for a training session.